Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Mini Travel Log: Christchurch, New Zealand

Christchurch; the gateway to Antartica and Middle Earth of the Lord of the Rings. It is summer but on the day I arrived, it has already been raining for the past few days. Can you believe it, temperature dipped to 8 deg celcius, it's freaking winter during summer! Amazing to see everyone including myself in jackets and boots instead of t-shirts and shorts. It was better on the second day as the sun managed to penetrate the thick clouds momentarily. Still, I had a very hard time taking pictures due to lack of light. What a gloomy day! As usual, I was a lone ranger exploring the whole city and even ended up on the hills. From Port Hills, I had the best view in the world overlooking the city to the North, the blue sea to the East and white alps of Middle Earth to the South. I was crazy enough to rent a bike and cycled along the mountains to the beach. From there, I had to cycle up the hills again to return the bike. I was dead tired and only realized the trip was 20km! If only I knew from the beginning...Nevertheless, I had no regrets. I had the best time on my own and would also recommend it to anyone going there.